11/22/63 -- for us old-timers only

I was in first grade. Our teacher announced that President Kennedy had "passed away". I didn't understand that term and thought she meant he had "passed out". At recess I noticed that some of the upperclass kids (5th and 6th graders) were crying. I couldn't figure out why they were crying over someone passing out. One of them shouted out, "He's DEAD!!!" And, then, television and life was consumed with newscasts, funerals, and grownups wringing their hands. Such is the naivety of a seven year old.

I'm too short for this ride...

but I was old enough to know tricky dick was really a crook.

I was at the counter at Leed's shoe store, buying fetching tiny heel shoes, now called.. kitten. The radio above the counter said what was happening. I paid and got out of there. I walked back to campus. I was early on knowing, crying sobbing as I walked toward the med center.

We went out that night, saw Lawrence of Arabia at the local theater. And broke up. Why, I can't parse now. He was a jewish atheist, me a lolling on her way person out of being catholic. I spent the weekend in front of the tv.
He came back on Monday.

funny, jes posted these lyrics from a they might be giants song earlier today

the bolded line is one of my fave lines ever from the band

I remember the year I went to camp
I heard about some lady named Selma and some blacks
Somebody put their fingers in the President's ears
It wasn't too much later they came out with Johnson's wax
I remember the book depository where they crowned the king of Cuba
Now that's all I can think of, but I'm sure there's something else
Way down inside me I can feel it coming back

That's all right, Rock. You can fork that pony yonder and listen to us grown-ups. Might could learn some'ut.

That guy has turned out to be a well regarded writer, explorer, and lived with the woman after my comment, wife, for many decades.

Dick Nixon was worse than a crook, he was a bum.

I was in typing class, tenth grade... 50 years and all anybody has is a couple of dozen conspiracy theories, each one as plausible as any of the others.

Our chemistry teacher tried to say "So what?" and carry on with the class. We walked out on her.

Ft. Rucker, Alabama for me. Training school for Army fixed wing aviation. We heard it over the public address system at break time. We mostly assumed someone was going to be in big trouble for joking around with Army time and equipment.

I had just graduated from B.U. the year before, had gotten married and had a part time job during the Christmas season rush at the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston as a "sales supervisor" while still looking for a real job. I was getting ready to go to work when my landlady, who lived downstairs, called up to ask whether I had my TV on. No, I usually didn't turn it on in the daytime.

"The president's been shot. You better turn the TVon."

I did just in time to hear that Kennedy had just been pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

I still went to work. There were very few customers that night despite the fact that the Christmas season rush was on.

I wasn't even a twinkle in my daddy's eye yet.

I came home on leave. To fill in the time and earn a few bucks, I went to work with my uncle. We spent the day near the Garner State Park, named after former Vice President Garner, framing walls to a new house. Late in the day, we stopped on the way home to buy sodas at a country grocery store. Already, the story was on the front page of the local newspaper: JFK SHOT TO DEATH. We stood there, staring at the paper in the news stand, too stunned to say anything. I recall not relishing the thoughts of a Johnson Presidency.

We're near the same age. I didn't think that far... or not before tv.

Earlier, I was the only one sobbing while walking up the street. People stared. That was only a few blocks but I remember the feelings.

I'd had a presentiment about Johnson, the day I learned he was to be the Kennedy running mate. It was like a black cloud hung over me for a moment. It was a big part of why I never warmed to Kennedy. So, Johnson gets the Civil Rights act passed, but he engulfs us in a tragic war that costs countless lives, needlessly.

I didn't feel any of that, that day. Not that you shouldn't have.

I had just finished Navy Flight training and was on my way to checking in to a Fighter Squadron at Cecil Field Florida, near Jacksonville. I was in a car dealer's office taking delivery of a brand new red Corvette, when I heard the news that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I also recall the salesman saying he had it coming.

As a matter of fact, during the Dallas-Washington game today, they showed the spot where Kennedy was assassinated several times.

That's the year we were married, and I can still remember all those tv shows that showed the parade followed by the guy who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, and the parade in Washington DC with Junior saluting his father's casket.

I was at a bank when I heard the news. Went with a friend to the Roxy Deli in the Bronx. Spent the whole time I was there eating a corned beef sandwich and watching the TV. Disbelief. Tears. Anger.

I had seen JFK in the flesh a few years earlier in an open motorcade.